tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90258612012-04-11T20:06:44.551-04:00tangentialmy heart goes to the radical and the brash.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.comBlogger175125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1162330099846408062006-10-31T16:10:00.000-05:002006-10-31T16:35:39.076-05:00it all comes down to thisI would characterize <strike>seventy percent</strike> eighty percent of my anxiety as arising from concerns about money. For a few weeks I've been feeling off kilter and aggressive, teetering between low and just plain angry. I realize now that it is pay day, that the fact that i don't have the prospect of two bounced checks hanging over my head, the sense of doom I've been hauling around is lightened. Not a lot, since there are still overdue bills whose checks haven't even been written, but there's a lightness to it nonetheless.<br /><br />This worries me to no end, the fact that not having enough and not being able to keep up, even with a good job and a healthy salary (not great, it's just not as anemic as the rest of the non-profit world) means that my whole life is going to be like this. I'll always be biting my lip right around the end of the month, always pacing around in my head, entering and re-entering my budget into excel spreadsheets, hoping that some new formatting will make the tally at the end of the column change from a negative into a positive sum.<br /><br />This, of course, is something I have always known. Something I thought I had accepted many eons and decades ago -- in middle school when my friends had new Espirit bags and not a stained hand-me-down from their cousins or in college when people flew to tropical places to get tans on spring break while I took a two-and-a-half day Greyhound bus from Massachusetts to Florida.<br /><br />But apparently not. Apparently every few months the enormity of my debt, the hopelessness of crawling out from under it and the utter frustration of a hole in the heel of my boots has to re-hit home.<br /><br />Still, it's pay day. Which means I got to pay my overdue cell phone bill. And I'll get to make the first of many (late) installment to my dentist. And perhaps a drink this lovely hallow's eve. Maybe I'll even allow myself to buy real gloves this winter -- not the $1.00 thin wool kind I usually get at the dollar store.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1153326365041583492006-07-19T12:19:00.000-04:002006-07-19T12:58:05.436-04:00Nature versus Lack of NurturingI am sort of thrilled that the preiminent scientific publication, <em>Nature</em>, has published this commentary on the reality of gender bias in the sciences (and, one can assume, the world writ large.)<br /><br />The story, by neurobiologist Ben Barres, tells of his experience as a scientist on both sides of the gender "divide." But, as he writes, "Anecdotes, however, are not data, which is why gender-blinding studies are so important. These studies reveal that in many selection processes, the bar is unconsciously raised so high for women and minority candidates that few emerge as winners. For instance, one study found that women applying for a research grant needed to be 2.5 times more productive than men in order to be considered equally competent."<br /><br />There's a good article in the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201883.html">Washington Post</a> about it. Elizabeth Spelke, a Harvard scientist says, "I think we want to step back and ask, why is it that almost all Nobel Prize winners are men today? The answer to that question may be the same reason why all the great scientists in Florence were Christian."<br /><br />In his study Barres writes, “I am suspicious when those who are at an advantage proclaim that a disadvantaged group of people is innately less able.”good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1151700955553401942006-06-30T16:54:00.000-04:002006-06-30T16:55:55.556-04:00the first stepIn repairing a broken state is <a href="http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/05pdf/05-184.pdf">here</a>.<br /><br />I am celebrating.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1151699237121295122006-06-30T16:10:00.000-04:002006-06-30T16:27:17.146-04:00RIP Favorite<div align="center"><br />RIP Favorites<br /><br /></div><p><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/1600/sleater_image3.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/320/sleater_image3.jpg" border="0" /></a> Number of times I've seen Sleater Kinney live (estimate): 20<br />Number of "super fan" weekends: 4<br />Number of years they've been together: 11<br />Number of times I've considered crying over a BAND breaking up prior to this one: zero<br /><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/320/hotrock.jpg" border="0" /><br />I feel like I want to blog something long and in-depth about why this is the end of an era or how they were so important to me. Or the side projects I hope each one picks back up on or how angry I am that some asshole from craigslist tried to get me to pay $400 for tickets to their new york show (why or why didn't I buy last week?). But instead I'm going to mourn quietly and post pictures of them like a fucking sixteen year old super fan. Which I am. But I'm also an adult fan who really craves and hungers the intellectual and political weight they brought to their music. And a sad girl who has a huge crush. And a music fan who has so much respect for how they played. </p><p><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/320/carrie.jpg" border="0" /><br />At various times I say that feminism saved my life. Or that riot grrrl did. But what I really mean is that Sleater Kinney, Heavens to Betsy and Bikini Kill articulated something critical for me that helped me progress as a person. The summer I spent as a college temp, doing data entry in uncomfortable suits with the Hot Rock blaring in my ear was the moment that I gained the self awareness and courage to do something with myself. I was 18, back in Oregon for the summer, and trying to reconcile my shame with my rage. Through sleater kinney, riot grrrl, feminism and friends I found something completely different -- hope and drive. </p><p>The pure energy of their music has been something I crave and await, their shows are always a rejuvination and discovery for me. I don't know how to describe it. They are <em>that</em> band for me. They arrived at a moment in my life and sustained a momentum that helped me progress. </p><p>I am really grateful to them and glad they made the records they did. </p><p>Thank you.</p><p> </p><p> </p>good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1151441779115973042006-06-27T16:42:00.000-04:002006-06-30T16:51:11.606-04:00fundamentalsI have been awe struck to read the long list of articles about the Islamization of the West. From the NYT magazine ("<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/magazine/25london.html">After Londinstan</a>") to the Economist ("<a href="http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7081343">Eurabia</a>"), this trend of articles goes on and on about the schism between "Islam" and the "West."<br /><br />I do not underestimate the threat posed by terrorists, religious fundamentalism or the Wahhabism movement. However, the focus of these stories on integration strategies (and their less than subtle zenophobia) is astounding when the real resistance and real struggle is not taking place in the West. Why? Because the same facism, with different faces, is trying to take hold.<br /><br />We cannot rebuke facist anti-democratic forces with different anti-democratic facist forces. In Europe and the United States far-right movements that rival Wahhabism in their rhetoric (if not their actions) have gained enormous power over the last few years. We have indefinite detentions, torture, apocalyptic religious rhetoric, illegal government kidnapping, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Mayfield">spying on citizens</a>, in the US we have major news outlets (note I said major, not legitimate) calling for an "<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200606290009">office of censorship</a>."<br /><br />What is the point of talking about assimiliation to the West when the very basic structures of a liberal society are being eroded around us. There is a culture of religious fundamentalism and political purity that does not offer a new model, but a different version of the authoritarian dictatorships that dominate other parts of the world. We do not have a vibrant political discourse in this country about issues of importance -- cut throat US capitalism rules the today with little or no international checks, to suggest other models makes you a commie and a has-been.<br /><br />What I am arguing is that there can be no real change in the world climate and no answer to violent Wahhabi rhetoric that encourages murder and lawlessness unless we reaffirm those values at home. There should be no condemning of a free press and no action being taken by brances of government outside of the law. What do you offer someone who is angered by the poverty and explotation of the world's poor? Assurances that the US is big, bad and will get you no matter what? That there is no rule, no convention, no inherent value to human life that "presidential perogative" can't trump?<br /><br />Until we reaffirm the value of basic human rights principles -- fairness, equality, justice and humane treatment for ALL people (good, bad, foreigner, combatant, citizen) there is no war to be won. Only a fight between two rival versions of evil.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1146235567988701572006-04-28T10:45:00.000-04:002006-04-28T10:52:36.900-04:00the butch is backMy musing from a few weeks ago:<br /><br />I'm cutting my hair tonight and this has sparked no end of conversations (mostly with myself) about the way in which I related to the world in gendered and or sexualized terms. Which is to say that I've lost a lil' of my mojo with longer locks.<br /><br /><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/320/splitender2.jpg" border="0" /><br />Yes, there is something delicious about burning my hair between two hot ceramic plates in the morning and when I recently discovered that I can do that fun rock-a-billy girl thing with the front of my pony tail I was thrilled, but the drawbacks include that I never get hit on by the ladies anymore and I don't swagger as often. I don't feel the swagger. Having girly hair makes me feel. . . . girly. In all the bad not-reclaimed as empowerment ways.<br /><br />And I want to think that such a thing is possible. That the explosion of "reclaiming hyper femininity as a way to turn it on its head" culture is possible -- ala the mainstream claims (at least in the beginning) of Jane or the semi-less mainstream arguments found in Bust -- or the general surge of indie-girl culture that focuses on pretty bags, hair clips, and pony purses. I'm all in favor, but can't escape that for me playing to the "girl" in me often requires employing a lower self esteem factor. While playing the butch in me (which I like to think of as the "laaady" in a really sort of low and funny voice) makes me more confident, feel less vunerable and more engaged.<br /><br />Which may all be some form of fucked up internalized misogyny. Definitely is -- right? My annoyance with this is that I feel like after careful consideration, years of purging, etc -- a cultural assumption should be forced to go away. I should be able to don a dress and feel as cocky and sure of myself as I do laced up in a tie. Alas, alack. I only feel that way when I have a suitably butch haircut. Then I revel in the contrast, the juxtaposition. In dress with long hair I feel. . . like I'm going to church : prim, proper, contained. Properly packaged with pink bow.<br /><br />Which is how I've been feeling anyway -- slightly contained. The new job schedule is hectic, robbing me of the extra two hours that I didn't used to realize made my evenings feel whole and complete. Who knew six-to-eight was such a vital time for rejuvination? Either way, the hair goes tonight.<br /><br />A post haircut post-script is pending.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1143050617246883692006-03-22T12:48:00.000-05:002006-04-21T12:33:08.926-04:00the sacrificeI haven't spent much time thinking about what it meant for my father to re-enlist in the military until recently. Or, to be more specific, I didn't think about the risk to his safety or his life. Instead I've been preoccupied by what his involvment may mean for his ethics, his politics and his morals.<br /><br />My father was in the Marines and reserves for 16 years, which means that he is four short years away from a military retirement. He informed me last summer that he was "considering" re-enlisting, doing weekend service as a JAG, and putting in his four years so he could have additional retirement income. Our conversation revolved around how I found this to be a uniquely selfish and short-sighted decision. He said that he had about a 50/50 chance of being assigned to a six-month stint in Afghanistan. This was all preliminary talk. He has constructed an intense set of justifications which include separating Afghanistan (which he views as a justified occupation) with Iraq (which he feels was an unjust war.) My objections to this include many, but the largest being that they are not separate conflicts from a military point of view and that people from Iraq and around the world are being transported, detained and tortured at known and black site prisons in Afghanistan. My personal objections to his leaving were about my family, my youngest siblings precarious age and unstable living situation and the overwhelming feeling that this was not about retirement, but escapism and the desire to play soldier in a real live war.<br /><br />In the course of our discussion, my father seemed to change his mind. He did not speak of it the rest of the summer or that fall. Then eight months later, he was abruptly taking physicals and driving to Ft. Vancouver, WA to re-enlist.<br /><br />We have not spoken extensively of this decision since it was made. Partially because he did it in relative secret and partially because I am afraid that we will run out of things to say to one another. As a JAG my father will play a critical role in advising soldiers about the legality of their actions in the arena of war. I send him reports from Human Rights First and accounts of soldiers being lied to about the restrictions of the Geneva Convention. I trust that he is doing the best he can to incorporate his own high standards into a compromised and corrupt system. At this point in this little endeavor, I can't ask for much more.<br /><br />That has been consuming my thoughts. What role he will play in the continued abuse of detainees and citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the degredation of our troops by their leaders. I worry about his mindset, his self respect and his ability to withstand the new mentality that has permeated the military. But I have not worried much. If nothing else, he is a gentle, sentimental man enamored with the rule of law.<br /><br />But on Monday I remembered that other thing he mentioned. Going to Afghanistan. I had not taken the time to process that risk or tabulate what it meant in my life and his. I have not allowed myself to process the danger or worry about his safety. To say I have avoided imagining it is the least -- I have actively pretended otherwise.<br /><br />I'm sure my father thinks nothing of offering his service and potentially his life to the military. Perhaps not to the President or this war, but to his country and to his "brothers and sisters" in combat he is -- at least on the surface -- unflinching.<br /><br />But I am not. I am horror struck by the prospect. Not just of a six month tour, but of the idea of sacrificing one's self to . . . well what? I can't even imagine what it would be for, who it would benefit, in whose honor or in pursuit of what abstract idea? I can't name one that seems solid. Patriotism? Honor? Freedom? Democracy? They meaning slips out from under the words and becomes immediately ironic, mocking, cruel.<br /><br />I grew up in a small place. I went to a high school where kids (like me) were bussed in from rural areas north, south and east of town. When I went there, in the mid-90s, there were still less than 750 students at any one time.<br /><br />So far, three soldiers from my high school have been killed. My neighbor Tyler Troyer. <a href="http://www.mfso.org/article.php?id=322">Joe Blickenstaff</a>, who graduated the same year as me. And Kevin Davis, who was 41.<br /><br />Three sounds miniscule, but when I talk to many people in my life -- they have numbers. They say 3,000. They talk about stories they heard on the radio or the news, blogs they've come across, films. For me, it is trying to recall Joe Blickenstaff's face -- to really hold it in my mind and not confuse it with his older brother Eric or his sister Susan. Three is a lot to lose, from a small place.<br /><br />I am struck also by where they came from. Reading through the casuality <a href="http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/soldier/soldier_oregons_most_honorable.shtml">list of soldiers from Oregon</a> that have died is like reading a book on obscure places: Scapoose, Elgin, Pendelton, Corbett, Lebanon, Halsey. These are tiny spots, with multiple soldiers represented in the casulities list and innumerable more camped somewhere, fighting something. All of this was enough to make me feel removed from the esoteric conversations that often happen about the war in Brooklyn bars or my Manhattan office. But the reality that I have not been facing is something I can't even seem to articulate. My father is enlisted. He may go.<br /><br />(post to be extended soon.)good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1140647149377852012006-02-22T16:53:00.000-05:002006-02-27T16:51:09.980-05:00The Petty Old Woman I've Always BeenLast night as I was smoking my goodnight cigarette a hail of paper came fluttering down from a window which was then promptly slammed back shut.<br /><br />At first I thought someone had thrown a stack of pictures onto the street -- which I thought was a dramatic and beautiful gesture. But upon closer inspection I realized they weren't photos, but fliers. Fliers for house music. Fliers for a record release party for a house music DJ. That's right -- the same house music that rockets through two layers of brick with studied regularity on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. That pounding boring monotonous racket that does not stop. Not when the clock strikes midnight. Not when the clock strikes one. Not when I march next door at 1:30 in my pajamas and ring the bell repeatedly.<br /><br />Editor's Note: I am not a puritan. I do not mind loud music. But I do work and I do get tired. I also am aware of the wonderful invention of the modern age -- headphones.<br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/1600/porterhouse.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/200/porterhouse.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />But there at my feet was just what I needed to make it all better: his name. Steve Porter. Steve Porter who is so boring and cliche that his album is called "Porterhouse". Get it -- he plays HOUSE music and his name is PORTER. And Porterhouse is a kind of meat. You see?<br /><br />But that's not the satisfaction. The satisfaction was dialing 311 and reporting a sanitation violation. Hope that $50 fine keeps YOU up at night Stevie.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1137473967901780232006-01-16T23:58:00.000-05:002006-01-16T23:59:27.923-05:00guantanamo blogmy favorite blog right now is <a href="http://blog.aclu.org">aclu attorney ben wizner</a> discussing the tiki bar and player piano tinkling tunes at guantanamo.<br /><br /><a href="http://blog.aclu.org/"></a>good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1136833760024870212006-01-09T14:05:00.000-05:002006-01-15T15:33:30.040-05:00schismThe way I think of myself is often through paralell -- I am in similar standing and position to __blank___. I am the opposite of ___blank____.<br /><br />But if the blanks are reversed, then suddenly I have created a new person. Or a schism where two of the ideas that I use to organize my persona have switched places.<br /><br />I have experienced a few major schisms in my life situations. The first leaving the west coast and going to college (the other option being stay, get pregnant again, follow a very worn path.) Perhaps there were more options there, but in my mind there exists a good golly who gave up other ambitions for desperation. She's a very active part of my current life, she acts as a specter who I can tell myself tales about, a ghost motivator. She helps me work long hours and she operates a large portion of my dream life -- nightmares of failure.<br /><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/400/schism.jpg" border="0" /><br />I face a smaller schism now, although still in the conversation phase, in terms of my standing in relation to capital. To have access to something I have never imagined for myself. Something that would take me even further away from that other future I maintain through my imagination. To imagine that schism, before it even takes place, has become an operation of fantasy and worry. I would be placed as the opposite, the reverse, of how I currently imgaine myself. It would remove me, in some ways, from my closest friends. Creating a space between our situations that worries me to no end. Of course, turning down such an option would be a false denial, one that would not benefit me nor would it prevent the shift -- since the option of a financial step up is enough to disrupt everything.<br /><br />That being said, I have not yet won the lottery. That ticket sits on the desk in front of me, taunting me with the fasle hope of being able to lift myself, my family, my favorites to a more solid place. Oh the home I want to buy for my brother, the savings I want to put aside for my aunt so she can quit that telemarketing job before she grows old, gets sick, sinks further into poverty. How I want to wipe away those student loan payments and ease the mind of E.D. and S.T.<br /><br />What would that mean, to my thinking about myself. Imagine being able to plan what you want, rather than what is necessary. That's the fantasy I engage in once a week, when I purchase a single quick pick ticket. So far beyond golden that I'm dizzy for an hour afterward.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1136832954678342112006-01-09T13:55:00.000-05:002006-01-10T16:17:32.726-05:00What the JT Leroy Says About You/UsNYT reported today <u><span style="color:#800080;">"<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/books/09book.html?8hpib">The Unmasking of JT Leroay: In Public, He's a She"</a></span></u><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/books/09book.html?8hpib"> </a><br /><br />This following the long, somewhat repetitive expose in New York Magazine from last October titlted: <a href="http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/14718/index.html">Who is JT LeRoy? The True Identity of a Great Literary Hustler</a><br /><br />I have a number of thoughts on the matter. First, there is little surprise that JT Leroy does not exist. And even less surprise that the people involved in inventing him are not from hyper-dysfunctional homeless West Virginian families -- but from a family so tight that the younger sister is playing the public persona, the mom is heading the front company, the the writer/co-creator continues to give interviews and post information about herself (not the character) at <a href="http://www.jtleroy.com">www.jtleroy.com</a>.<br /><br />I am not necessarily interested in who JT Leroy really is in some senses. The mystery seems like a thin film to deter larger conversation. I don't care who is writing the accounts, it is the work itself that I take so much issue with. But when a person is created -- a "real live person" to vouch for it-- the debate is deadened and lost in the debate about who this person is, what's behind the mystery, etc.<br /><br />That is the drama that literati and celebrities alike were so quick to embrace, without any regard for the problematic nature of the products this kid (collabrative, co-op, family, what have you) is pitching. <a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/1600/jt%20leroy.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/320/jt%20leroy.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Here's my issue: from the first time I heard about this book, it was from people who were incredulous that this "whole world" of tranny-truck stop hookers existed. Everything was so traaaashy, so surreal. Cross dressers and brutal sexual abuse, doing lines off the floor of bathrooms, kidnappings and underlying it all "isn't it crazy, I mean, how poor people live?"<br /><br />When I read Sarah I was equal parts interested and offended. It did not read as well as I had assumed it would (given the attention) -- something between an adolescents first novel and something from francesca lia block. it had that faeries and LA vibe to it. Something very Hollywood, west coast and slick.<br /><br />Then I read up on JT and I was even more offended. The account of this truck stop boy, who floats to SF only to be rescued -- whose sheer talent (which I don't have that much regard for) lifts him up, betters him, separates him from his past, his family, his people (read: poor, from West Virginia, red state, not NY or SF) was too much to swallow. Then you add the whole AIDS thing, the won't be seen in public, hangs out only with celebrities, wears a weird wig. . .<br /><br />Mary Gaitskill has said the most interesting thing so far on the matter.<br /><br />“It’s occurred to me that the whole thing with Jeremy is a hoax, but I felt that even if it turned out to be a hoax, it’s a very enjoyable one. And a hoax that exposes things about people, the confusion between love and art and publicity. A hoax that would be delightful and if people are made fools of, it would be okay—in fact, it would be useful.”<br /><br />The fact that it has so clearly been a hoax for going on five years is remarkable. And that these writers -- Sharon Olds, Dennis Cooper, etc -- were so taken by this story, by this account of poverty and prostitution that was so romanticized on the one hand and so demonizing and explotative on the other is clearly indicative to me of how cartoonish the expectations of poor people continue to be. How much people delight in the confirmation of their ideas, how they will fight tooth and nail to prove that their prejudices and their inventions are real -- how far they will look to find the example, even if it is wigged and their accent is off -- of what they know to be true of the world.<br /><br />What would be interesting for me is if part of the creators intent, rather than simply fame or money (the major motion picture release of <em>The Heart is Deceitful Above All Else</em> is due out soon) was to demonstrate some of the fallacy of that celebrity. To demonstrate how much Winona Ryder and Sharon Olds alike are smitten with the idea of a strung out prostitute who reads a little Keats on the side -- as opposed to engaging with the everday realities that are not quite so surprising, not quite so romantic, and involve people who wouldn't be invited to the party. I don't mean to say that I believe a truck stop tranny prostitute isn't capable of loving some dense modern poetry -- as the story of JT goes -- but rather, it's not likely. Not because of their capacities, but the ways in which poverty operates, the voices literature imploys, the audience it seeks, and the stark and awful truth that a kid who never attended school probably isn't the best of readers. But of course, part of the disgusti I have for JT Leroy is the pull yourself up by your bootstraps nature of the story. Well -- he's not your average uneducated bloke. He's better than all of them. He's deserving. The implication? <em>They</em> are not.<br /><br />In the meantime, I do think that nonfiction is critical, that lives are things that can speak and tell us things. There are plenty of kids, free of celebrity and without big advances, who are making art that is worthwhile and monumental.<br /><br />Ashley Nelson is an 18 year old New Orleans resident who wrote a book called "The Combination" about one of N.O. oldest public housing complexes, the Lafitte.<br /><blockquote>"Ms. Nelson's interviews let the reader hear from voices rarely engaged, from the owner of the corner store, to the Residents' Council, to the members of the community more often profiled than listened to. She writes about and photographs much of Lafitte, from second lines to ward signs, from the Wild Side to the Real Side, from Dooky Chase to Southern Scrap, it's all here." </blockquote>You can find out more at <a href="http://www.neighborhoodstoryproject.org">http://www.neighborhoodstoryproject.org</a>.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1135119738331105082005-12-20T17:54:00.000-05:002005-12-20T18:02:18.366-05:00today in civil libertiesAll day press, all the time.<br /><br />I miss my blog. I mourn it. I shall find some way to return. Especially over the holidays when I have unchecked country time to wax eloquent on family dynamics.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1133888218990770692005-12-06T11:56:00.000-05:002005-12-06T11:56:59.793-05:00there's always troubleBut <a href="http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/baumgardner/secondabortion/">'Trouble in Numbers' </a>especially.
<br />
<br />For your perusal. good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1133876120261600972005-12-06T08:28:00.000-05:002005-12-06T08:35:21.166-05:00all apologies<p>things i will blog on soon:<br /><br />manic flight reaction by sarah schulman;<br />the new harry potter;<br />torture and accountability ;<br />winter and romanticism;<br />the strain of the holidays.<p>In the meantime, my time is sparse, my head keeping me from sleeping through the night, funds are tight, weather is cold, and I've been smiling like mad of late. <p></p>good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1131999194571720812005-11-14T15:13:00.000-05:002005-11-14T15:16:07.900-05:00i know it's overkill, but bear with meKP lays it down again in her column this week:<br /><br /><em>You're always so glass-half-full in public," my editor says at this point. "But in private you're as down as Dowd." Well, not quite that down. But yes, I thought we'd be further along by now. I feel for young women today--somehow, between the irony and the knowingness and the 24/7 bath in pop celebrity culture and its repulsive values, it can be harder for them than it was for us to call a sexist spade a spade. They've been bombarded from birth with consumerism and Republicanism and hyperindividualism, and told in every possible way that feminism is deeply uncool and unhot. Dowd is such a credulous audience for backlash propaganda it doesn't occur to her that she is promoting, not reporting, the problem she describes. I'm amazed, actually, that feminism is still around, given the press it gets. </em><br /><br /><em>Dowd, for example, thinks feminism may be a 'cruel hoax' because it keeps women single--men are scared of spunky, successful women. (In interviews Dowd denies she's attributing her own unmated state to her fame and fabulousness, but that's how she's been read.) Well, some men definitely want the young compliant type. But--anecdotal evidence again--most women in my circle are paired, and we are all feminists and really, really great. Men hold a lot of cards in the mating game, but fewer than they used to, and women hold more than before. There has never been a better time in all world history to be a 53-year-old single woman looking for romance. Besides, as ferocious young Jessica Valenti put it over at Feministing.com, 'Feminism isn't a f***ing dating service.' Out of the mouths of babes. "</em><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(from </span><a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051128/pollitt"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Nation</span></a>)good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1131985693345067112005-11-14T10:58:00.000-05:002005-11-14T12:13:55.870-05:00For the Orphans<em><blockquote><p align="left"><em>"Perhaps all unsheltered people are angry in their hearts, and would like to break the roof, spine, and ribs, and smash the windows and flood the floor and spindle the curtains and bloat the couch."</em> -- Marilyn Robinson, <em>Housekeeping</em><br /><br />"Loneliness is an absolute discovery." --MR</em></p></blockquote>Reading it out of context, the quote might seem more general, related to the dispossessed, the poor and the homeless. Which of course, it is. But this morning on the train, in the voice it is spoken, and in the reader, it was all family.<br /><br />There are times, when I hear people speak about their families, their parents, their meals, their homes, their emails, their support, their lives -- when I want nothing more than to march up their porches (decorated, I imagine them, with the appropriate holidays dressings and cleared entirely of leaves) and split open their front doors. I want to flood their bathrooms and invite strangers into their kitchens, to eat from the cabinets and leave the drawers swung open, crumbs spread out.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/1600/collapse.2.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/320/collapse.2.jpg" border="0" /></a>I want to walk in on the domestic bliss (love, comfort, no abuse) and sit down amongst them like a troll. I want to run a slimy knarled finger over their cheeks and stain them with the generational residue that marks me. I want to empty their pockets and see if they still smile so brightly. I want to crack their flat flat tvs and chip all of their glasses and see if they are so perfect, so good, still.<br /><br />I want to know the difference between other families and mine. I want to know if they have been pushed to hard or if they are just weak. I want to know if all those mothers who call on the phone, who send care packages to their grown children, who know the names of their friends and who counsel in times of need simply have all the leisure time in the world or if they are wonder-strong and as shiny as they seem. Who are these fathers with wide laps and big grins, who aw-shucks and chuck balls about the yard? Have you seen them?<br /><br />It's not simply the lack of shelter I feel so intensley, but disbelief in roofs in general.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">For reference: <em>The Organization and Formation of Blizzards as Seen by Satellites: A-Z</em> by Ander Monson (</span><a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~inreview/content/issue262/262fiction1.html"><span style="font-size:85%;">Indiana Review</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">)</span>good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1131566523763539632005-11-09T14:47:00.000-05:002005-11-09T15:02:03.780-05:00defining one's chancesI can't get the Lotto out of my head this week.<br /><br />Ever since I was a small child, I had the implausible and unshakeable conviction that I was going to win the lottery. This weekend I'll write about Ed McMahon and my baptism dress -- how they are inexorably linked for time and all eternity.<br /><br /><br /><p><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/400/lotto.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br />But for now I have to ask myself: why is this fantasy so persistent. It involves many layers. There is the trust I would set up to pay for the education of my family's descendants; The loans I would pay off for friends (promises I have articulated to them, years ago, and probably every few months since we've known one another); the lit mag I could start; the graduate school I could afford; the loans I could pay off; and then there is the ultimate -- something I wasted an entire subway ride on yesterday -- how I would tell my parents.<br /><br />I could tell them to print out a credit report, wait for them to do it, and then tell them all of that worry, all of that stress, all of that burden -- is over. I could send a crew of construction workers to the house to finally patch those uncovered vents and the decay of the barn. I could scream or I could deliver it deadpan (my preference). I could call my grandmother first and let her break the news to them. I could fly out, arrive at their doorstep with a check to pay off their mortgage. I could. . . you see how this goes on. I get stuck in the vastness of that moment -- the gift, the relief, the burden lifted.<br /><br />I can't stop thinking about it. Powerball, Mega Millions, King Kong Millions (for a limited time only). I think this is how gambling addicts start, right? Playing Keno or video poker. Luckily, that's not legal here. I got snowed into a hotel in Portland (iced in is more accurate) and they had video poker in the bar. It was a long strange night. I don't think I could actually spend large sums of money -- just time, energy, and all of this idiot hope*.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><em></em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:78%;"><em>(*that being said, I partially wrote this entry so that when I win it will look like prescience.)</em></span><br /><br /></p>good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1131510431890300452005-11-08T23:24:00.000-05:002005-11-08T23:29:06.103-05:00Other good newsIt's only 11:15 here, so nothings for sure, but it looks like Prop 73 (parental notification bill) is going to fail in Cali. (!)<br /><br />And Corzine won in NJ (take that Pataki). Maine passed a resolution outlawing discrimination against the gays.<br /><br />Sadly, Ohio rejected the voting reforms it needed to make the state function democratically. Oh well, as long as Blackwell never becomes governor. Never, ever, ever.<br /><br />Okay, I'm going to check the lottery results. If the VA election is any indication, things are going good golly's way tonight.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1131509886532967552005-11-08T23:11:00.000-05:002005-11-08T23:23:05.756-05:00Trumpeting for KaineArchivists amongst you might note that the first few entries of this blog came in the sad mid-november days of last year. And I called then for a look ahead, for the signals of 2005 and activism to motivate for next year -- one that will surely mark either a turning point or a state of continued insanity for our country.<br /><br />Tonight, I am pleased to report, our fair state of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/national/09virginia.html?hp&ex=1131512400&amp;amp;amp;en=6aa46e63e14f8157&ei=5094&amp;partner=homepage">Virginia elected Timothy Kaine </a>to be its next governor -- defeating a well-funded and vitrolic opponent who ran ads last week that claimed Kaine would have been opposed to the death penalty for Hitler.<br /><br /><em>"Equally significant, Mr. Kaine's victory was a major hit for Mr. Bush, who campaigned for Mr. Kilgore Monday night even though his own approval rating had dipped below 50 percent in Virginia.</em><br /><br /><em>Mr. Kilgore's aides said Mr. Bush's appearance was crucial in increasing Republican turnout, but Democrats and political analysts said it might have also energized as many or more Democrats and independent voters to turn out for Mr. Kaine. </em><br /><br /><em><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/1600/trumpet%202.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/320/trumpet%202.jpg" border="0" /></a>Democrats are likely to trumpet Mr. Kaine's victory as evidence that Mr. Bush has become a detriment to local and state Republican candidates in advance of next year's midterm congressional elections."</em> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/national/09virginia.html?hp&ex=1131512400&amp;amp;amp;en=6aa46e63e14f8157&ei=5094&amp;partner=homepage">(from nyt)</a></span><br /><em></em><br />While "Democrat" is far from my first political allegiance, consider this entry to be one of the chorus tonight that plays the first note of "Taps" for the neoconservative movement.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1131394697643865582005-11-07T15:16:00.000-05:002005-11-07T15:25:46.073-05:00national book award reading<p><em>What</em>: National Book Award Dinner</p><p><em>When</em>: Nov. 15th</p><p><em>Why</em>: Because it's 21 readers for $10</p><p><a href="http://www.nsu.newschool.edu/02_special.htm#0361">Get yr tickets. </a>I'll smuggle in skittles. We can hold hands if you want.</p>good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1131394545292197422005-11-07T15:07:00.000-05:002005-11-07T15:15:45.310-05:00who hates time select?<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/1600/times%20select.gif"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5932/640/320/times%20select.gif" border="0" /></a> I do. I do.good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1131029404586064152005-11-03T09:49:00.000-05:002005-11-03T10:18:45.273-05:00the length of one's selfThe length of my hair is an obsession.<br /><br />I don't have that many. I have plenty of things I can talk about endlessly, but they don't consume me the way this does. The length of my hair is something I choose to dally over, to measure with the stroke of my own hand. I think about it all the time, make decisions, change my mind, map out a five-year-plan.<br /><br />It is a larger question than brown or black, light brown or chesnut, bob or razor bob. My hair represents -- in it's micro fashion -- the entirety of my gender expression. There are certain outfits that when my hair is short, I cannot pull off. A dress, one with layers or movement, doesn't look right. Looks like drag or camp -- a performance of a good-golly girl self. Likewise, now that my hair is stretching out toward my shoulders (touching them daily) the tie I used to wear quite freely feels like some attempt, some joke at another person. A laughable tomboy.<br /><br />Those polars are wrapped up in so much more -- there is a sense that my adult clothes, the things that allow me to manuever through "professional" or "mature" settings are inherently more feminized. Meanwhile, my sneakers, jeans, even button downs have an adolescent flavor. It's hard for me to wear something fancy, wear something for a job interview say, and have it maintian the level of masculinity, or adrogyny, that I would prefer. Which I don't think is inherent in any way, but more a symptom of the way in which both ideas of myself have developed.<br /><br />This is more complex then "when I was twelve I realized to grow up I would have to become a "woman" and learn to dress more like a girl". Which is, of course, true. But it is tied also to the realization that my more androg impulses are tied to a certain politic. One that might have me off making radical rather than typing on the high floors of a downtown building. That version of myself might not suffer through, nor place themselves in such a way to get invited to, a fancy dinner. There is a way in which I tied the version of myself at my most comfortable -- definitely boyish, although with a dyked out flair, tailored, sneakered -- is my most irreverent. But I also find this disturbing. I don't like that decked out in dress I feel more obligated to be demure, to shy my eyes, to flirt rather than pursue. I hate how easily tied those personas are to some kind of gender expression.<br /><br />I wish that I felt the cocky ownership of the world in heels that I feel when I'm tailored down. I resent that I've internalized all of that so easily -- or more accurately, I resent that knowing it hasn't abated anything.<br /><br />And so I am here. With almost shoulder length locks feeling detached from my bodygood gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1130953844676305822005-11-02T12:38:00.000-05:002005-11-03T09:42:58.526-05:00feminism and straight sexMy previous post with critique of Maureen Dowd's article in the NYT magazine is relevant -- the whole reporter trend of going after "women regress and love it" with faulty research is something that I want to call bullshit on.<br /><br />But there is something more problematic about the original article and its replies. Why is the success or relevance of feminism measured by the ability of straight women to "catch a man"? Why is the ability to find marriage material how one should judge where to place the bar of social critique?<br /><br />There is some argument to be made about the ways in which feminism (or backlash) has affected interpersonal relationships both sexual and political. All of these articles talk as if feminism actually "happened" in some way and we are going back, rather than arguing that feminism was articulated at some venture and continues to operate as an idea but not a reality for most women.<br /><br />When I read the article this weekend, the first thing it made me think was "I'm gay." I stood up out of bed and looked around my apartment. For some reason it struck me very suddenly that I lived with another woman and that my concerns were very much removed from what Dowd was talking about. At the same time, I felt that most of the people I knew approached relationships (issues of sex, whose going to pay, and what is a successful relationship) with a lot more maturity then all of subjects of these articles. There is no crisis of faith, no attempt to recraft oneself as "the hunted," and while there are plenty of concessions I find depressing -- they often aren't intentional, let alone strategized.<br /><br />My point is this: feminism has the potential to restructure all personal interactions. It could, if ever embraced, destabilize all sorts of sexual scenarios. But the merit of equality is not how many dates it gets, its not even how much things have changed, its that equality is desirable. Of course there are a million moral relativist claims to be made here. I'm just more interested in a real exploration of cultural forces and sick of feminism being relegated to the scapegoat for the dating woes of modern America. It has to mean more than that.<br /><br />In the meantime, someone needs to explain hetereosexuality to me, cause I don't get it.*<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">*I mean, I get it. I get men and women sleeping together and dating and all that. What I don't get the belief that it's "natural" or "just what you are" anymore then I buy that claim for the queers.<br /></span>good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1130952439325297642005-11-02T12:14:00.000-05:002005-11-02T12:27:53.496-05:00Dowd right wrongMaureen Dowd annoys me usually. There's something grating about her columns and something even more frustrating that she is the lone female representative on the NY Times Editorial pages. But then she writes trash like "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/magazine/30feminism.html">"What's a Modern Girl to Do?"</a> and I just have to shake my head.<br /><br />What is she talking about?<br /><br />Luckily, there has been a response:<br /><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Why Dowd Doesn't Know What Men Really Want</strong><br />11/02/05<br />By Rivers and BarnettWeNews commentators<br /><br /><br />(WOMENSENEWS)--A growing media narrative over the past year says men do not like high-achieving women.<br /><br />It's been fueled by stories in, among others, The New York Times, the Chicago Sun Times, Toronto Star, "60 Minutes" and the Atlantic magazine.<br /><br />This drumbeat reached its zenith Sunday in Maureen Dowd's New York Times Magazine piece, "What's A Modern Girl to Do?"<br /><br />The article has become the most e-mailed article from the Times' Web site and has left Dowd fielding readers' mail on "the past and future of feminism."<br /><br />What a waste of such a powerful platform. If only Dowd--capable of such wit, charm and political insight--had bothered to check her social science data.<br /><br />"Decades after the feminist movement promised equality with men," Dowd laments, "it was becoming increasingly apparent that many women would have to brush up on the venerable tricks of the trade: an absurdly charming little laugh, a pert toss of the head, an air of saucy triumph, dewy eyes and a full knowledge of music, drawing, elegant note writing and geography. It would once more be considered captivating to lie on a chaise lounge, pass a lacy handkerchief across the eyelids and complain of a case of springtime giddiness."<br /><br />For this surreal description of contemporary men and women, Dowd draws on "data" that shows her running with the media pack, yes, but sadly out of touch with serious social science.<br /><br /><em>An Alleged Trend</em><br /><br />In particular, Dowd hypes an alleged trend of men rejecting ambitious women based on a 2004 study by psychology researchers. Those findings, by psychologists Stephanie Brown of the University of Michigan and Brian Lewis of University of California, Los Angeles, were wildly overblown.<br /><br />The study was done on a small sample of 120 male and 208 female undergraduates, mainly freshmen.<br /><br />The males rated the desirability as a dating or marriage partner of a fictitious female, described as either an immediate supervisor, a peer or an assistant.<br /><br />Surprise, surprise! The freshman males preferred the subordinate over the peer and over the supervisor when it came to dating and mating.<br /><br />The study, however, was no barometer of adult male preferences. Rather, it reflected teen boys' ambivalence about strong women.<br /><br />Men, by contrast, do not reject achieving women. Quite the opposite. Sociologist Valerie Oppenheimer of University of California, Berkeley reports that today men are choosing as mates women who have completed their education. The more education a woman has, the more likely she is to marry. Unlike the single University of California, Los Angeles study, this finding comes from an analysis of 80 peer-reviewed studies.<br /><br /><em>Evolutionary Theory</em><br /><br />Another major problem with the college students study was that investigators claimed an evolutionary basis, namely, that men's drive to reproduce their genes leads them to prefer relatively subordinate, docile females.<br /><br />By the same evolutionary token, then, women should be "hardwired" to seek as mates men who are older, dominant and in control of financial resources. But that same college study found nothing of the sort. Instead, the young women showed no preference for dominant males over other males for either dating or mating.<br /><br />The notion that women are driven by their genes to seek older, rich men has been skewered by recent research.<br /><br />Alice Eagly of Northwestern University and Wendy Wood of Duke University provided a major review of mate-selection data with findings from 10,000 people in 37 countries.<br /><br />It found that in societies where women have access to resources, they do not choose older "provider" males to marry. Instead, they go for men who are kind, intelligent and can bond with children.<br /><br />Yes, when women can't pay their own way, rich older men look pretty good, even if they don't change diapers or listen to what a woman has to say. But when women bring home the bacon themselves, they start looking for something quite different in a guy.<br /><br /><em>Dredging Up the IQ Study</em><br /><br />Dowd dredges up another study about men not liking smart women. This one was conducted by investigators at four British universities (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol and Aberdeen) and found that for every 15-point increase in IQ score above the average, women's likelihood of marrying fell by almost 60 percent. The Atlantic published this research in 2005 under the title "Too Smart To Marry?"<br /><br />Really bad news for bright women, right?<br /><br />Not. Neither Dowd nor the Atlantic bothered to mention--apparently they did not know--that the data were gathered from men and women born in 1921; the women are all now in their 80s.<br />Should a study of octogenarian women be taken as a guide for today's young people? No.<br />Dowd also recycles Sylvia Ann Hewlett's argument, from her book "Creating a Life," that high-achieving women tend to be miserable and often childless. For a challenge to that data, read Heather Boushey of the Center for Economic Policy Research. In a 2002 published study based on several large government data sets, Boushey found high achievers little different from other working women.<br /><br />From 36 to 40, high achievers are more likely to be married and have kids than other female workers, but they marry later than other women. Boushey found that women between the ages of 28 and 35 who work full time and earn more than $55,000 a year or have a graduate or professional degree are just as likely to be successfully married as other working women.<br />Dowd writes that many women today "want to be Mrs. Anonymous Biological Robot in a Docile Mass. They dream of being rescued; to flirt, to shop, to stay home and be taken care of." And so forth.<br /><br /><em>Irritating Fluff</em><br /><br />Dowd's writing is fun, but is basically a bunch of irritating fluff.<br /><br />As a piece of institutionally self-serving evidence, for instance, she refers to a recent front-page story in The New York Times about young women attending an Ivy League college who were planning to reject careers in favor of staying home and raising children. The article claimed that 60 percent of women in two Yale dorms wanted to jettison careers and be stay-at-home moms.<br />The story was not written by a Times reporter. It was written by a journalism student doing her graduate thesis who based her story on an e-mail survey. Slate media writer Jack Shafer found the "facts" in the story so flimsy that the reporter "deserves a week in the stockades. And her editor deserves a month." He pointed out that the writer used the word "many" 12 times in place of statistics.<br /><br />Writing in The Nation, columnist Katha Pollitt said she had contacted a number of people at Yale, including professors and students who were interviewed. She said not one felt the story fairly represented women at Yale. Many students said they'd thrown away the reporter's questionnaire in disgust.<br /><br />Physics professor Megan Urry polled the 45 female students in her class and only two said they planned to stay at home as the primary parent.<br /><br />When Dowd bases her views of men and women on such poor research, it's no wonder that Dowd looks into the crystal ball of feminism and finds the picture so disconcerting.<br />Caryl Rivers is a professor of journalism at Boston University and Rosalind C. Barnett is a senior scientist at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. They are co-authors of "Same Difference; How Gender Myths Are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children and Our Jobs."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.womensenews.org/">From Women's Enews</a>good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025861.post-1130521685422558592005-10-28T13:48:00.000-04:002005-10-28T13:48:05.530-04:00Adviser to Cheney Is Indicted in Leak Case Oh happy day.
<br />Oh happy day.
<br />
<br />When Scooter was (when Scooter was)
<br />When <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/politics/28cnd-leak.html">Scooter was indicted.</a> (from nyt)
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<br />good gollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10993969320846943514noreply@blogger.com0